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Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS)

Wednesday, 5 April 2017

If you sell alcohol to another business you may need to apply for approval for the AWRS. The scheme was introduced to tackle alcohol fraud and traders wholesaling alcohol in the UK or Isle of Man must be registered for the scheme (with some exceptions).

You will face penalties if you trade without approval.

Anyone who buys alcohol from suppliers to sell to the public needs to:

• check the businesses they buy from have registered for the AWRS

• have a Unique Reference Number (URN)

You can check these by following the links below:

Isle of Man approved traders

UK approved traders

You will not need to check all your suppliers on 1 April 2017. You can carry out checks before you next trade with each wholesaler. You will need to repeat this check periodically, to ensure your wholesalers remain approved for AWRS.  Keep records of the checks as evidence of your due diligence activities.

Further information about the AWRS, including when a sale is not subject to the scheme, is available.

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